The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration on Sunday to seek criminal charges against newspapers that reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.
Rep. Peter King cited The New York Times in particular for publishing a story last week that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records.
King, R-N.Y., said he would write Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging that the nation's chief law enforcer "begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times _ the reporters, the editors and the publisher."
"We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous," King told The Associated Press.
A message left Sunday with Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis was not immediately returned.
King's action was not endorsed by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
"On the basis of the newspaper article, I think it's premature to call for a prosecution of the New York Times, just like I think it's premature to say that the administration is entirely correct," Specter told "Fox News Sunday."
Stories about the money-monitoring program also appeared last week in The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. King said he thought investigators should examine those publications, but that the greater focus should be on The New York Times because the paper in December also disclosed a secret domestic wiretapping program.
He charged that the paper was "more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people."
When the paper chose to publish the story, it quoted the executive editor, Bill Keller, as saying editors had listened closely to the government's arguments for withholding the information, but "remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest."
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Treasury officials obtained access to a vast database called Swift _ the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The Belgium-based database handles financial message traffic from thousands of financial institutions in more than 200 countries.
Democrats and civil libertarians are questioning whether the program violated privacy rights.
The service, which routes more than 11 million messages each day, mostly captures information on wire transfers and other methods of moving money in and out of the United States, but it does not execute those transfers.
The service generally does not detect private, individual transactions in the United States, such as withdrawals from an ATM or bank deposits. It is aimed mostly at international transfers.
Gonzales said last month that he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security. He also said the government would not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.
In recent months, journalists have been called into court to testify as part of investigations into leaks, including the unauthorized disclosure of a CIA operative's name.
He said the First Amendment right of a free press should not be absolute when it comes to national security.
Oh you mean like the secret torture camps?Originally posted by: Aisengard
What about if the government is doing something illegal? Do they have the right to 'classify' that information?
Originally posted by: palehorse74
While I truly despise the NYT for their seemingly gleeful exposure of our country's various weaknesses, in terms of national security, I believe that the real problem here was the fact that such information was leaked. That seems to me to be an operational security problem which needs to be fixed ASAP. The NYT should have never heard of the database tapping to begin with!
So I personaqlly choose to condemn both the NYT and those who leaked the program details in the first place. The NYT wouldnt be a problem if those with access to classified info would just keep their fvcking traps shut.
so be it though.. i'm quite used to seeing and hearing of the NYT&friends blatantly underminding our Nation's security.. no surprise there. Unfortunately, I'm also used to hearing about security leaks as well. This just goes to show that there are idiots on every side of the issue...
All evil is done by good men who are so sure they are good and also that they are so much smarter than others that they have permission to break the law for the good. Bush is a tremendous evil because he thinks he's good, perhaps even the will of God.
Originally posted by: palehorse74
While I truly despise the NYT for their seemingly gleeful exposure of our country's various weaknesses, in terms of national security, I believe that the real problem here was the fact that such information was leaked. That seems to me to be an operational security problem which needs to be fixed ASAP. The NYT should have never heard of the database tapping to begin with!
So I personaqlly choose to condemn both the NYT and those who leaked the program details in the first place. The NYT wouldnt be a problem if those with access to classified info would just keep their fvcking traps shut.
so be it though.. i'm quite used to seeing and hearing of the NYT&friends blatantly underminding our Nation's security.. no surprise there. Unfortunately, I'm also used to hearing about security leaks as well. This just goes to show that there are idiots on every side of the issue...
Originally posted by: palehorse74
While I truly despise the NYT for their seemingly gleeful exposure of our country's various weaknesses, in terms of national security, I believe that the real problem here was the fact that such information was leaked. That seems to me to be an operational security problem which needs to be fixed ASAP. The NYT should have never heard of the database tapping to begin with!
So I personaqlly choose to condemn both the NYT and those who leaked the program details in the first place. The NYT wouldnt be a problem if those with access to classified info would just keep their fvcking traps shut.
so be it though.. i'm quite used to seeing and hearing of the NYT&friends blatantly underminding our Nation's security.. no surprise there. Unfortunately, I'm also used to hearing about security leaks as well. This just goes to show that there are idiots on every side of the issue...
Originally posted by: palehorse74
While I truly despise the NYT for their seemingly gleeful exposure of our country's various weaknesses, in terms of national security, I believe that the real problem here was the fact that such information was leaked. That seems to me to be an operational security problem which needs to be fixed ASAP. The NYT should have never heard of the database tapping to begin with!
So I personaqlly choose to condemn both the NYT and those who leaked the program details in the first place. The NYT wouldnt be a problem if those with access to classified info would just keep their fvcking traps shut.
so be it though.. i'm quite used to seeing and hearing of the NYT&friends blatantly underminding our Nation's security.. no surprise there. Unfortunately, I'm also used to hearing about security leaks as well. This just goes to show that there are idiots on every side of the issue...
Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequences of his own temerity. --Blackstone
Originally posted by: fitzov
The rising question is whether disclosing information that prevents the execution of justice is legal. The answer would seem to be 'no'. Then a judge would decide whether NY Times disclosed such information.
Originally posted by: halik
This kind of talk has the familiar aftertaste of the things I've seen during my youth. Rather than terrorism or national security, the excuse in my homeland was called "impairment of the common interest".
You will watch your rights erode and with it the notion of checks and ballances.
Originally posted by: senseamp
Maybe if Congress was doing its job of imposing checks and balances on the administration, the NY Times wouldn't have to.
Originally posted by: HBalzer
Let?s think about this at a more personal level. Say you ratted out the biggest mafia crime boss in history and are put into a witness protection program. Well the NY times finds out who and where you are and post it front page.
Would you hold the NY times accountable then?
You would hope that they would have some ethics and not post something that would knowingly harm anyone; sadly ethics seems to take second place to money these days.
Originally posted by: Future Shock
Originally posted by: HBalzer
Let?s think about this at a more personal level. Say you ratted out the biggest mafia crime boss in history and are put into a witness protection program. Well the NY times finds out who and where you are and post it front page.
Would you hold the NY times accountable then?
You would hope that they would have some ethics and not post something that would knowingly harm anyone; sadly ethics seems to take second place to money these days.
In terms of personal harm, the NYT and other responsible papers DO NOT report personally damaging or threatening details - they leave that for the Enquirer. Remember the hubub about Kobe Bryant's alleged rape, and how everyone wanted to know the victim's name? The responsible papers did not release it, nor do they ever for rape victims. Same goes for witness protection programs...and their may even be a federal statute around the release and publication of those names, given the amount the government has to invest in them.
FS